Apple's chief financial officer Peter Oppenheimer detailed Apple's leading position in the enterprise and among government agencies, noting custom corporate app development, mass device deployments and a recent new security clearance.

President Obama shown with an iPad 2 in 2011. Photo via The White House.

"iPhone continues to be the smartphone of choice for business," Oppenheimer stated in his prepared remarks during the company's quarterly earnings call. "Given the security and stability of iOS, enterprise and government customers around the world continue to deploy iPhone on their networks in ways that go far beyond personal productivity," he added.

"Companies have built tens of thousands of custom apps to improve every aspect of their business. Global companies including American Airlines, Cisco, General Electric, Roche and SAP have deployed more than 25,000 iPhones each across their organizations."

American's flying adoption of iOS devices

In June, American Airlines announced it had deployed more than 8,000 iPads and is now using Apple's touchscreen tablet as an electronic flight bag in the cockpit of its entire fleet of airplanes.

American became the first major commercial airline company to fully utilize tablets in all cockpits during all phases of flight, allowing it to eliminate 24 million pages of paper documents, save an estimated 400,000 gallons of jet fuel each year, worth $1.2 million, and help prevent back injuries among pilots who will no longer have to carry heavy bags full of paper flight manuals.

Credit: American Airlines

Cisco dumps Android tablet plans, partners with Apple

Cisco's enthusiastic adoption of iPhone is notable given that the company had earlier attempted to launch its own "Cius" Android-based tablet and Umi set top box, both oriented toward video conferencing.

In addition to steamrolling both products with FaceTime, Apple's iPhone and camera-packing iPods also helped to destroy the market for Cisco's Flip digital camera, just two years after the company had paid $590 million to acquire it.

Cisco had also earlier sued Apple over the name "iPhone," which it had used on a landline phone product. The two companies quickly settled the matter in 2007, and in 2010, Cisco further agreed to license the name "iOS" to Apple. Cisco had long used the brand "IOS" to refer to its own, unrelated router operating system.

GE & BYOD

General Electric's large scale adoption of iPhone began in 2008, leading to support for an employee pilot program to test support for one thousand new Mac notebooks and desktops beginning in 2011.

The "Bring Your Own Device" trend at GE has also occured at many other companies. Last year, Forrester expected corporate and government spending on Macs and iPads to increase 50 percent to $19 billion in 2012, even as PC spending was expected to slide from $71 billion year down to $69 billion.

Last spring, Oppenheimer also cited Roche as a major iPad customer, noting that "thousands of iPads are being deployed as mobile sales tools" by companies including Roche, Amgen and Bayer.

SAP uses Apple & vice versa

In 2010, the president of SAP North America Rob Enslin told a reporter that he traveled with only an iPad and a BlackBerry, adding that Apple's new iPad had almost allowed him to "run a paperless office." SAP was also noted to have developed an app to let managers approve shipping of customer orders, and the company said it had a handful of other apps planned.

Conversely, a report on Apple's investments in India noted that the iPhone maker relies on resource planning software from SAP to manage its complex overseas supply chain.

Here to help the government

Oppenheimer's comments also noted that "U.S. government organizations such as NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the ATF [Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives] and the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency are supporting and managing thousands of iPhones on their networks and continue to create both customer-facing and internal iOS apps."

Apple's products were on conspicuous display at NASA's JPL last year during the Mars Curiosity landing, when dozens of MacBooks, along with iPhones and iPads, were shown in use at the agency's Entry, Descent and Landing Operations team (above). iPhone holds a 62.5 percent share of the U.S. commercial market based on the latest quarterly data published by IDC.

NOAA made news early last year when it announced it was extending official support for iPhones and iPads while at the same time phasing out support for BlackBerry.

In parallel, the ATF announced similar plans to drop support for 3,800 BlackBerry devices after a decade of supporting the devices, and said it would primarily be migrating to iPhones for its staff including 2,400 special agents.

Oppenheimer also noted that, "in just this past quarter, iOS 6 was granted FIPS [Federal Information Processing Standard] 140-2 validation by the U.S. Federal Government and approval by the U.S. Department of Defense to connect to their networks."

The approval should help iOS adoption among other government agencies, although there has already been widespread support for iOS over the past year and a half since the General Services Administration added Apple's iOS to its approved purchasing list. And even prior to GSA approval, the U.S. Air Force's Air Mobility Command announced plans to buy as many as 18,000 iPads for use as cargo aircraft digital flight bags.

"Combining sales to business, government and education customers," Oppenheimer concluded, "iPhone holds a 62.5 percent share of the U.S. commercial market based on the latest quarterly data published by IDC."

Funny (as in strange) that we don't hear about these kinds of adoptions, deployments, supporting with Android? It's a befuddlement. Head scratcher. Moment for pause. So many questions race through one's head in search of answers. I wonder if Android has an app to answer such queries. Of course it is not Apple's need to wonder why, so I doubt we'd find the answer in an app, from there.

When I find time to rewrite the laws of Physics, there'll Finally be some changes made round here!

I am not crazy! Three out of five court appointed psychiatrists said so.

Funny (as in strange) that we don't hear about these kinds of adoptions, deployments, supporting with Android? It's a befuddlement. Head scratcher. Moment for pause. So many questions race through one's head in search of answers. I wonder if Android has an app to answer such queries. Of course it is not Apple's need to wonder why, so I doubt we'd find the answer in an app, from there.

Herd who is adapting/deploying androids can be found at places like slickdeals.net! shhhh lol

Well... Good for them. But the DoD and the largest aerospace company in the US.... No iPhone and iPad is limited to certain apps only. Sigh.

If that's the case then I suspect Apple isn't too many iOS versions away from being allowed onto the DoD networks (provided they have a desire to be). Blackberry's have been for awhile and Samsung phones with KNOX are allowed.

It was sheer brilliance to employ an illuminated logo on the lid of Apple's notebook computers, with the orientation seen today.

This at the Higgs boson announcement:

I'd be careful in drawing the conclusion that nearly 100% of the computer users at the announcement were Mac users: it's quite possible that the Windows PC types were just embarrassed to be caught on camera using their PCs at such an important event.....

I hate to say this but Apple is still considered a doomed company. Wall Street has given Apple a less than 50% chance of surviving as a successful business by 2015. Google's Android is just too powerful a mobile OS for iOS to remain relevant. It's amazing how many investors there are who are betting that consumers will stop buying Apple products to buy low-cost Android products. They claim that consumers have no reason to buy high-cost Apple products when most Android devices are just as good if not better and cost half the price. Cheap plastic is seen as just as good as metal and it's a lot lighter and doesn't dent.

I'd be careful in drawing the conclusion that nearly 100% of the computer users at the announcement were Mac users: it's quite possible that the Windows PC types were just embarrassed to be caught on camera using their PCs at such an important event.....

...and some of those users, being no doubt predominantly science and engineering types (and we know what they are like), might have been running windows and linux on their systems. A convert to the Mac once told me that his new iMac was the best pc he'd ever had. (He's since dropped windows altogether, having been weened off it.)

I work in the Australian Parliament House (its like the White House of Australia).
I'm in the IT area, we are currently giving the bigwigs iPads & iPhones, for every 50 iPhones they get, maybe 2 requests for Galaxy S4s, maybe 2 for the BB Z10s. Support & setup time on the iPhone is less than 1/2 that of the other phones, at least!.

I hate to say this but Apple is still considered a doomed company. Wall Street has given Apple a less than 50% chance of surviving as a successful business by 2015. Google's Android is just too powerful a mobile OS for iOS to remain relevant. It's amazing how many investors there are who are betting that consumers will stop buying Apple products to buy low-cost Android products. They claim that consumers have no reason to buy high-cost Apple products when most Android devices are just as good if not better and cost half the price. Cheap plastic is seen as just as good as metal and it's a lot lighter and doesn't dent.

Do you have a source for that? Apple would have to make multiple mistakes of Ballmer sized proportions to put them out of business in three years.

The more I think about it. I don't even think Ballmer could put Apple out of business in three years if he were CEO. It would take government level ineptitude to pull off a financial disaster of that scale.

I hate to say this but Apple is still considered a doomed company. Wall Street has given Apple a less than 50% chance of surviving as a successful business by 2015. Google's Android is just too powerful a mobile OS for iOS to remain relevant. It's amazing how many investors there are who are betting that consumers will stop buying Apple products to buy low-cost Android products. They claim that consumers have no reason to buy high-cost Apple products when most Android devices are just as good if not better and cost half the price. Cheap plastic is seen as just as good as metal and it's a lot lighter and doesn't dent.

Are investors leading or trailing indicators? Because most of them are herd followers: If a stock is going up, they don't want to be the last to buy, if a stock is going down, they don't want to be the last to sell.

... and help prevent back injuries among pilots who will no longer have to carry heavy bags full of paper flight manuals.

Heh. That one always gets me. Most airline pilots seem to use rolling bags, instead of carrying them.

Quote:

Originally Posted by mhikl

Funny (as in strange) that we don't hear about these kinds of adoptions, deployments, supporting with Android?

Well, you're certainly not going to hear about them here :)

The military has used certain Android phones for a while. The FBI and the Navy are starting to deploy Samsung phones with the Knox secure kernel, which was written by NSA and allows separate personal and secured partitions.

Companies have deployed Android tablets for their internal engineers, field techs and sales personnel. They just don't talk about it a lot, although here's one article about Verizon from early last year.

Heck, when American Airlines got 8,600 iPads for its pilots, it also got 16,000 Galaxy Notes for every crew member to use.

I do think the iPad is more popular right now, in part because buying Apple has become "safe", like the old saying from not long ago, "Nobody gets fired for buying IBM." Apple also tends to keep the same general models longer, which enterprises like.

It was sheer brilliance to employ an illuminated logo on the lid of Apple's notebook computers, with the orientation seen today.

This at the Higgs boson announcement:

Great observation...I've seen the photos of university classrooms where 90% of the laptops sport the apple logo...And anytime I spot one in a movie, I tell GF, "Apple!" I never really equated it with, Someone actually thought that thru! Silly me!

I'd be careful in drawing the conclusion that nearly 100% of the computer users at the announcement were Mac users: it's quite possible that the Windows PC types were just embarrassed to be caught on camera using their PCs at such an important event.....

Great observation...I've seen the photos of university classrooms where 90% of the laptops sport the apple logo...And anytime I spot one in a movie, I tell GF, "Apple!" I never really equated it with, Someone actually thought that thru! Silly me!

Great observation...I've seen the photos of university classrooms where 90% of the laptops sport the apple logo...And anytime I spot one in a movie, I tell GF, "Apple!" I never really equated it with, Someone actually thought that thru! Silly me!

Just as humorous the lengths some directors and producers go to in disguising the logo in productions. Some clever, some not but of course in doing so... :)

Great observation...I've seen the photos of university classrooms where 90% of the laptops sport the apple logo...And anytime I spot one in a movie, I tell GF, "Apple!" I never really equated it with, Someone actually thought that thru! Silly me!

I've sat in many a classroom/lecture hall from the opposite vantage point and I can verify that 90% of the laptops are surfing Facebook.

I hate to say this but Apple is still considered a doomed company. Wall Street has given Apple a less than 50% chance of surviving as a successful business by 2015. Google's Android is just too powerful a mobile OS for iOS to remain relevant. It's amazing how many investors there are who are betting that consumers will stop buying Apple products to buy low-cost Android products. They claim that consumers have no reason to buy high-cost Apple products when most Android devices are just as good if not better and cost half the price. Cheap plastic is seen as just as good as metal and it's a lot lighter and doesn't dent.

you really haven't got a clue why consumers and businesses are buying iOS devices. I can give you a hint: it's certainly not because of aluminum unibody.

I think we will see more than just plastic variant. There will be a differentiator solutions as well that will make competitor devices obsolete and ridiculous. I expect same from larger screen iPhone, but sadly, this one will not come out this year.

If that's the case then I suspect Apple isn't too many iOS versions away from being allowed onto the DoD networks

???
Didn't read this article (or past reports)? IOS 6 was approved for gov/dDoD networks in May.
"Oppenheimer also noted that, "in just this past quarter, iOS 6 was granted FIPS [Federal Information Processing Standard] 140-2 validation by the U.S. Federal Government and approval by the U.S. Department of Defense to connect to their networks.""

I hate to say this but Apple is still considered a doomed company. Wall Street has given Apple a less than 50% chance of surviving as a successful business by 2015. Google's Android is just too powerful a mobile OS for iOS to remain relevant.
(blah, blah, blah)
.

Funny (as in strange) that we don't hear about these kinds of adoptions, deployments, supporting with Android? It's a befuddlement. Head scratcher. Moment for pause. So many questions race through one's head in search of answers. I wonder if Android has an app to answer such queries. Of course it is not Apple's need to wonder why, so I doubt we'd find the answer in an app, from there.

Android is not meant for the Enterprise. Apple has some information on their site, but Apple doesn't publicize a lot of their wins as much as they win them. There is some publicity here and there. I think LA County School District just made a huge iPad purchase.

Some of the ones they list in this article have been publicized before, I guess you have to read the right publication as they might not be widely distributed articles. San Jose Mercury covers them once in a while, as does Apple's website.

Here's a list of the Top 100 as of Sept last year. I'm sure the numbers and customer list has changed since then.

I work in the Australian Parliament House (its like the White House of Australia).
I'm in the IT area, we are currently giving the bigwigs iPads & iPhones, for every 50 iPhones they get, maybe 2 requests for Galaxy S4s, maybe 2 for the BB Z10s. Support & setup time on the iPhone is less than 1/2 that of the other phones, at least!.

Meanwhile one of the more backward Aussie school systems just fell for the Microsoft Surface below-cost deal.

"That (the) world is moving so quickly that iOS is already amongst the older mobile operating systems in active development today." — The Verge

I hate to say this but Apple is still considered a doomed company. Wall Street has given Apple a less than 50% chance of surviving as a successful business by 2015. Google's Android is just too powerful a mobile OS for iOS to remain relevant. It's amazing how many investors there are who are betting that consumers will stop buying Apple products to buy low-cost Android products. They claim that consumers have no reason to buy high-cost Apple products when most Android devices are just as good if not better and cost half the price. Cheap plastic is seen as just as good as metal and it's a lot lighter and doesn't dent.

You are so melodramatic with this stuff. None of those points are verifiable.

I hate to say this but Apple is still considered a doomed company. Wall Street has given Apple a less than 50% chance of surviving as a successful business by 2015. Google's Android is just too powerful a mobile OS for iOS to remain relevant. It's amazing how many investors there are who are betting that consumers will stop buying Apple products to buy low-cost Android products. They claim that consumers have no reason to buy high-cost Apple products when most Android devices are just as good if not better and cost half the price. Cheap plastic is seen as just as good as metal and it's a lot lighter and doesn't dent.

Good is a very subjective term that is difficult to verify.

How do you define better? Simply because a phone allows you to swap batteries and insert micro-sd cards? Never mind that the hardware has a bug which may just void your sd-card?

I have 2 colleagues whose Note2s sported huge, unsightly cracks across their screens within weeks of purchasing them. Both still have no idea how they came about. They just took the phone out of their bag and were like "Hey!"

I have personally had my fair share of experiences where I tried to save a few dollars by getting a cheaper alternative, only to be burned when that item stopped working after a while, and I ended up buying the original version instead. To me, you get what you pay for, and I willing bought Apple products because I believed that a simplified, smooth and hassle-free computing experience was well worth the higher initial outlay. And I have yet to be proven wrong.

I hate to say this but Apple is still considered a doomed company. Wall Street has given Apple a less than 50% chance of surviving as a successful business by 2015.

That's a very specific claim, and very different from what I've been reading. I've seen a few article questioning whether it's possible for Apple to maintain the sort of growth they've had in recent years going forward into a future approaching saturation on the high-end, but none of them have questioned the very survival of the company.

Just as humorous the lengths some directors and producers go to in disguising the logo in productions. Some clever, some not but of course in doing so...

That's because they had to. Rules for using real life products demanded it. Those rules have gotten more relaxed in recent years. They used to be crazy strict which is why you didn't see real software, even real web browsers. And of course the stupid fake and impossible IP addresses.

Heh. That one always gets me. Most airline pilots seem to use rolling bags, instead of carrying them.

It gets me too that you just don't get it.

For your information, ignorance is not an excuse. The bag with the wheels is his personal suitcase. The 'flight bag' that the iPad is replacing is the one on top of it with the CREW tag. That's a lot of dead weight to have to lug around.

Remember, there are 3 to 5 cockpit crew members on every commercial flight.

That's because they had to. Rules for using real life products demanded it. Those rules have gotten more relaxed in recent years. They used to be crazy strict which is why you didn't see real software, even real web browsers. And of course the stupid fake and impossible IP addresses.

The rules do seem to have been relaxed recently, I'm sure the logo has appeared on the 'small screen' and that Apple didn't pay for product placement lol. Many screen shots were quite creative, others not so.